The Duke With the Dragon Tattoo by Kerrigan Byrne

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 The 6th book in the Victorian Rebels read-a-long is The Duke With the Dragon Tattoo by Kerrigan Byrne. As mentioned before, The Romance Book Squad is hosting this read-a-long and is comprised of Alecia, Natasha, Krystal and Kerry.

I was very excited to read The Rook's book and though it was good, just not as good as the previous few books. I didn't see it coming before this, but a little bit in I did get the hints that the Rook is actually the true Dorian (that's believed to been dead since book 1). I liked Lorelai too, especially her propensity to heal and take care of the wounded creatures she came across, including Rook.

One thing about this that I really enjoyed was how much little angst was sprouted from their separation 20 years prior. I was almost expecting it to be a huge issue and cause undue miscommunication. While it did take a bit for them to get to that conversation, once it was had they didn't dwell on it and moved on. I can't quite say why this book didn't quite hit 5-stars for me. I just felt like something was missing. I still really enjoyed this book. I also liked that we got a little bit of light on Inspector Morley's connection to our band of criminals and his background. His book is next. The epilogue (and throughout the book) also eludes to a romance between Sebastian and Victoria. It has been announced that book 8 will be his, so that's exciting. No release date yet though or confirmation that Victoria is his pair. Although there is a novella before his as well.

Have you read The Duke With the Dragon Tattoo?

Bookishly Yours,

Stasi🍎

STATISTICS: The Duke With the Dragon Tattoo, Kerrigan Byrne, 4-stars, 1 day, eBook, 333 pages, Published 2018

The Scot Beds His Wife by Kerrigan Byrne

 

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Book 5 in the Victorian Rebels series is The Scot Beds His Wife by Kerrigan Byrne. As I'm sure you know if you've read my other reviews of this series, I am reading these as a read-a-long by Romance Book Squad hosted by Alecia, Natasha, Krystal and Kerry. 

After immensely enjoying The Highlander, I was very excited to get back to Scotland and get the HEA for his brother Gavin. This book starts out on a train robbery in America and doesn't let up from there. I love tropes like this where it's secret identity and they try to stay away from each other, but just can't help being drawn together. I loved Sam (masquerading as Alison) and thoroughly enjoyed her schooling all the highlanders she was surrounded by what's actually need to run a successful cattle business. She was also a great sharpshooter and loved that her pistols were Antony and Julius. Gavin was the charming Scot as expected and hiding a heart of gold. I loved that Sam realized almost instantly that his issue wasn't that he didn't feel, but felt too deeply. 

The villain felt so appropriate and not too much. I did wish that even though there was the big secret that she wasn't actually Alison, that he still didn't force her to leave without listening to her. I did understand it though and found myself tearing up when she was on the train to the Netherlands. It just broke my heart that she finally found a place she felt she belonged and a home, but was sent away from it. Overall I loved this book so much, and loved the sneaky plotlines about the infamous pirate Rook. His book is next and I can't wait to start it! I'm a little ahead with the read-a-long, but I figured I'd try to finish them before I got too sucked into fantasy romance for FaRoFeb.

Have you read The Scot Beds His Wife?

Bookishly Yours,

Stasi🍎

STATISTICS: The Scot Beds His Wife, Kerrigan Byrne, 5-stars, 1 day, eBook, 394 pages, Published 2017

The Duke by Kerrigan Byrne

 

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After finishing The Highlander, I couldn't help but jump right into The Duke by Kerrigan Byrne. I am reading her Victorian Rebels series as a read-a-long with the Romance Book Squad, hosted by  Alecia, Natasha, Krystal and Kerry. 

Another 5-stars! After absolutely loving The Highlander, I couldn't help but immediately jump into The Duke. Book 4 centers around Cole, the not-so-secret spy and Duke of Trenwyth and his former lover and nurse Imogen. Going into this book Cole was teased a little, but the reader still didn't know too much about him. When on Goodreads to mark it as "currently reading," I did glance at the reviews. I just skimmed the first couple that were featured, at I was nervous going into this book due to the reviews mentioning horrible things he said to Imogen. I was expecting bad (because this is Kerrigan Byrne and she's not afraid to go dark), but it didn't really seem that bad to me. There's only one part really where he seemed abnormally mean, but at the same time he was also coming out of septicemia and surgery to help his wrist where he lost his left hand. Plus, he was at the point in his recovery from being a pow and tortured, that he almost wished he wasn't alive, and so took it out on the nurse that diagnosed him correctly and saved his life.

He was also snarky with her at the charity dinner, but so were other members of the high nobility that were there so it didn't seem that bad to me. Just stereotypical duke haughtiness. Anyways, I loved this book. Read it in one sitting and really enjoyed how it played on my emotions when he just didn't recognize her! The only thing I could've done without, was the dead kitten. Just, no. Also, I was surprised with whom the villain ended up being. After finishing The Duke and seeing we were headed back to Scotland for The Scot Beds His Wife, I immediately jumped in. I have to say, I now understand the hype around this series. I just wish it would've been a little more hyped that it's the later books that really up the ante. Or maybe it's just me that loves these later books. *shrugs*

Have you read The Duke?

Bookishly Yours,

Stasi🍎

STATISTICS: The Duke, Kerrigan Byrne, 5-stars, 0 days, eBook, 377 pages, Published 2017

The Highlander by Kerrigan Byrne

 

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The next book for the Romance Book Squad's Victorian Rebels read-a-long is The Highlander by Kerrigan Byrne. This is book 3 in series, and we finally have a winner. Before we get into my review, the Romance Book Squad is hosted by Alecia, Natasha, Krystal and Kerry. 

This is what I was waiting for from Kerrigan Byrne. I absolutely adored this book and Mena and Liam. I was excited going into this book, even more since I've been in a highlander mood lately (Thank you Donna Fletcher). Liam is known as the Demon Highlander (from his efforts in the war) and Philomena is his new governess for his two teenagers. First off, this book starts dark (like most of the series so far), but this one really got to me more than the others. Philomena has been declared insane by her horrible, horrible husband and mother-in-law and is going through atrocities in an asylum. Thankfully she gets saved by our heroes from the first two books, but not without severe emotional damage being done. 

Philomena was such a strong character, but still managed to stay nice and have a fairly positive view of her life and the world despite the horrors she's been through. The meet-cute for them was so divine, I was grinning my ears off just knowing what was to come. Also, I love all of Liam's brogue throughout the book and he's just so swoony. If I make a book boyfriend list at the end of the year, Liam will definitely be on it. I really enjoyed the evolution of their relationship and how Mena was able to help repair the relationship Liam had with his kids and estranged brothers. I'm loving this rag-tag group of bad boys and their wives that's being built. I did see Liam's villain coming (it was pretty obvious to me who the creeper was), but am very happy to finally be on the 5-star Kerrigan Byrne train. I read this so quickly and immediately went into her next book, The Duke.

Have you read The Highlander?

Bookishly Yours,

Stasi🍎

STATISTICS: The Highlander, Kerrigan Byrne, 5-stars, 0 days, eBook, 358 pages, Published 2016

January Wrap Up

 Happy February!!

So my first month of blogging my book reviews kicked off well and I feel very accomplished that I've not only been able to keep up, but can't wait for more throughout the year. I can't promise that reviews will be posted at the same rate, but I did have a good chunk of reading time in the middle of the month that allowed me to back up some blog posts.

I've also been trying to be more active in the book clubs and read-a-thons I've joined over the past year, so this is helping me keep accountable. To keep this post fairly short, I'll just go over my statistics for the month below. ** I have also updated to show a few of my charts that are on my spreadsheet!

JANUARY 2021

16 books read for 6,267 Pages (Listed in order of read below)

💗 I averaged 1.88 days per book. 
💗 The average page count is 391.69 
💗 13 of the books were in the 300 page range with 2 in the 400 and 1 in the 500 page ranges.
💗 14 of the books were read for clubs and/or readathons.

💗 5 of my books were diverse!

💗 I read 6 new authors! 

💗Of the books I read, I already own 1 in paperback and there are 11 I want to add to my collection! 

💗 I read all of them in eBook format

💗 2 of the 11 books were rereads.

💗 2010 was the most popular decade with 12 books. 1990s had 2 and the 1980s and 2000s had 1 each.

💗 My average rating was 4.63 stars.
 🍎🍎🍎🍎🍎 - 11 books
🍎🍎🍎🍎 - 4 books
🍎🍎🍎 - 1 book

💗 14 were in the subgenre of Historical Romance. Contemporary Romance and Fantasy Romance had 1 book each.

1. The Sea King by C. L. Wilson

2. Gilded Web by Mary Balogh

3. Dangerous by Amanda Quick

4. The Lost Duke of Wyndham by Julia Quinn

5. That Scandalous Evening by Christina Dodd

6. A Daring Arrangement by Joanna Shupe

7. A Scandalous Deal by Joanna Shupe

8. A Notorious Vow by Joanna Shupe

9. The Highwayman by Kerrigan Byrne

10. My Darling Duke by Stacy Reid

11. Love Lettering by Kate Clayborn

12. Bound to a Warrior by Donna Fletcher

13. The Hunter by Kerrigan Byrne

14. The Highlander by Kerrigan Byrne

15. The Duke by Kerrigan Byrne

16. The Scot Beds His Wife by Kerrigan Byrne

💗 My favorite book of the month would have to be Bound to a Warrior by Donna Fletcher or The Highlander by Kerrigan Byrne. My least favorite was the only 3-star this month, The Gilded Web by Mary Balogh. 💗

Are you keeping track of your stats this year? How many books did you read in January?

Bookishly Yours,

Stasi🍎

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